Michael Phelps says he is positive this time, his retirement from Olympic swimming is going to stick.
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United States’ Michael Phelps walks with his national flag during the medal ceremony for the men’s 4 x 100-meter medley relay final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “You know, I think, like we talked earlier in the year, I wanted to come back and finish my career how I wanted, and this was the cherry on top of the cake that I wanted”.
Phelps retired following the London Olympics – disappointed with his performance and exhausted of the sport – but returned 18 months later in search of a better ending to more than two decades in the pool.
It was the fifth gold medal of these Games for Phelps and his 28th overall. Since then, he has had a dramatic turnaround.
An extra bonus? “I got to do it with my son here”, he added of 3-month-old Boomer, who sat (and snoozed) in the stands while his father won six more Olympic medals, five of them gold.
Phelps’ compatriot Ryan Murphy, who completed a personal sweep of the men’s backstroke golds with victory in the 100m and 200m events as well as the medley relay, made a bit of history of his own as he broke Aaron Peirsol’s world record in the lead-off leg of the medley relay.
“It’s nice to sit down”, he said, wearing all of his 31 years. In addition, he plans to continue teaching people to swim so that the drowning rate improves.
“This all started and began with one little dream as a kid that changed the sport of swimming and tried to do something nobody else has ever done”, said Phelps.
Get free real-time news alerts from the Towson Patch. Back when races were only timed to one-tenth of a second, not one-hundredth as they are in the pool, USA speedskaters shared silver at the 1968 Winter Olympics.
In the previous race, Simone Manuel anchored the U.S. women’s 4x100m medley team to the 1,000th gold medal in her country’s Olympic history.
Phelps looked like the same dominant swimmer who holds three individual world records and revolutionized the sport, only more at ease, comfortable with himself and able to enjoy the moment.
“I only really want to represent myself, my family, my coach and my teammates”.
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And the U.S. Olympic team also achieved a milestone on the final night of swimming.
